It is common practice in the manufacture of duct board material, such as a duct board panel, to pass mineral fiber insulation between a pair of foraminous conveyors, or belts, mounted for travel through the curing oven. Hot gases are passed through the insulation to more effectively cure the binder in the insulation. Associated with the oven are flows of hot curing gases, usually air, which travel generally upwardly or downwardly through the insulation. A common construction for the belts is that of foraminous flights connected in series and driven by a chain. The ends of the flights are mounted on wheels which ride in tracks running the length of the oven.
In some mineral fiber insulation curing ovens, shiplap shoes are attached to opposite edges of the opposing belts to form a continuous kerf or shiplap edge into each side of the cured insulation product, which is typically a duct board panel. It is often desirable to produce a duct board panel having no shiplap edges, or duct board panels having different sizes of shiplap edges, on one manufacturing machine. However, shiplap shoes are typically permanently welded to each flight. Alternately, shiplap shoes are known to be bolted to each flight. Each time there is a job change, the shiplap shoes must be removed and replaced. However, removal of such bolted shiplap shoes is a time consuming and costly process. Reattaching the same or different shiplap shoes to the belts is also a time consuming and costly process. Accordingly, it is desired to provide an improved method and apparatus for attaching a shiplap shoe to a flight.